How to play Quick Step online
- Kangaroo (player 1): arrow keys to jump, Space bar to set a Tricky Trap
- Squirrel (player 2): T/F/G/H to jump, A to set a Tricky Trap
- One or two players: F11 (the consoleās Select switch); a ā2ā at the top of the screen means a two-player game
- Start or restart a game: Space bar (player 1ās fire button)
Gameplay
Grey trampolines are not active yet. Be the first to land on a pink one and you score 3 points. Any trampoline you land on turns your colour (green for the kangaroo, blue for the squirrel), so you can steal your opponentās. Every trampoline still in your colour when it slides off the bottom of the screen is worth another 6 points. If you ride one off the bottom yourself, you lose a life.
There are two special mats. A white Magic Mat, announced by a sound, makes you glow; while glowing, land on the same trampoline as your opponent to freeze them for a moment (10 points). A Gold Mat gives you 7 points and an extra Tricky Trap. Each player starts with six traps. Press the button in mid-jump and the trampoline you just left vanishes, leaving a hole nobody can land on.
Five beeps mark the end of a wave. The field then narrows to a single āladderā of trampolines that leads up to the next, faster level. Both animals start with six lives, and there is a bonus life at 2,000 points. The game ends as soon as either player runs out of lives, and the survivor gets 200 points for every life left.
Tips
- Keep away from the bottom edge. Everything drifts down, and the faster levels leave little time to hop back up.
- Repaint low trampolines. A tile in your colour pays 6 points only when it leaves the screen, so a quick hop onto an opponentās tile just above the bottom edge swings the score.
- Donāt finish off the opponent too early. The game ends when either side loses its last life, so keeping the computer alive longer gives you more waves in which to score.
History
Quick Step came out in September 1983. Many magazine reviewers of the time saw it as Imagicās take on Q*bert. The graphics drew criticism, but the two-player mode won praise. Looking back in 2009, IGN put it in its top five Imagic games for the 2600 and singled out its fast multiplayer action.
